Year 12 Geography students field trip to Arthur’s Pass took place on the 20th of March.

The trip was for our internal assessment to test river theory on the Bealey River. We spent one full day up at Arthurs Pass testing, experiencing the environment we had learned about in class as we collected data on how a river changes from the upper to lower valley.

This year, the trip was collectively decided to be shortened to one day long, but the Year 12 Geographers kept their spirits high and enjoyed a full day of activities and river testing. The Year 12 Geographers of 2019 were blessed with a beautiful day consisting of only high pressure, this made it very easy to test the rivers and also added to the great outcome of a fun day.

We began our adventure with a lengthy walk to the upper valley of the Bealey River, we tested the velocity with a very sophisticated device, called a tennis ball as well as measuring the width and depth of the river to help our investigation into changes along the river course. The river here was steep, with large rocks and pools. After collecting the data we went into the small township of Arthurs Pass and had some lunch. We encountered some friendly and slightly curious kea as well as some tasty pies.

After lunch we carried on our investigation by travelling down to the mouth of the Bealey River. Once again we got our feet wet and measured the velocity and profile of the river but this time we used some fancy university equipment called a flow metre. By this stage the river had widened out and the speed of the river was much faster. Mr. Meredith attempted to make the trip more fun by creating a rock stacking competition safe to say our team definitely came first and I definitely did not sabotage the other team.

Overall, the trip was a great experience for the Year 12 Geographers. We learnt a lot about the Bealey river and river theory. It was a great opportunity to put our in-class learning into practice.